Comfortable is Killing You

12 Laws of Transformation • 40 Days to Personal Revolution

Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone | LAW OF TRANSFORMATION #3

Comfort zones are toxic.

I get it— we all want to be comfortable— but what if I told you that comfortable is killing you?

We live in a world where we think we should always be comfortable. Got an ache? Here’s a pill. Feeling an emotion? Give me a drink. Got a problem? Avoid it and find a distraction. The truth is— if we wanna heal, we gotta feel.

Neale Donald Walsch famously said, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. Simply put, this is where ALL of the MAGIC happens.

To step out of your comfort zone means to move beyond your normal way of being and doing, and that is some scary stuff. In the process of transformation, it is normal to pick and choose the issues you want to “work” on as a way to play it safe. When you play it safe though, you continue to stay in your comfort zone. It’s a vicious cycle of staying stuck.

If you want big change in your life and want to be up to something bigger— for yourself and others— you can’t pick and choose what you want to work on. Transformation is holistic and that means you can’t put conditions or limitations on what you are willing to work on.

Gulp.

Like Baron Baptiste says— who you are one place is who you are everywhere. You can’t chose to be willing to change/feel/accept in one area of your life, and not in others. When you operate this way, you stay stuck.

It feels vulnerable AF to step when out of your comfort zone. Vulnerability means taking a risk. Vulnerability means not knowing the answers or the outcome. Vulnerability is scary and — vulnerable. You can numb yourself and expect fullness. You can’t avoid and expect results. You can’t ignore and expect acceptance. Transformation doesn’t work that way.

What keeps you in your comfort zone? For me, it is fear. The one thing I am most afraid of is failure. Failure and a concern for looking good have kept me in my comfort zone at times. In these moments, I feel stuck, encumbered— even stagnant. When I am stuck here, the concern for looking good keeps the bigger miracles in my life just out of reach. When I am willing to step outside of my comfort zone, however, the universe shows up for me. She opens doors and windows I did not even know existed!

Ironically, we should call our comfort zone the discomfort zone — rather than providing us with the Santosha or contentment we seek, it is really the discomfort we are seeking to escape, disguised as comfort. Sometimes what we know seems easier that the vulnerable unknown, but this is a lie.

Where can you step outside of your comfort zone? What fear can you release? Stepping out of your comfort zone may be something very grandiose like quoting a job, leaving a partner, making a big life-altering decision, or it may be as simple as asking for support or help, saying no to a request, saying YES to a invitation, teaching your first yoga class, or telling someone you love them. Don’t judge the scale of disrupting the comfort zone. Small beginnings cause great change.

When you step outside of your comfort zone, you can start getting comfortable with discomfort, and this is the first step to unlocking all of the magic that the universe has in store for you. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable will lead you into the greatness and fullness that you deserve.